Contents

Summary

SmackDown Live’s New Era finally has the hardware to match.

Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan kicked off the show with members from the women’s and tag team rosters behind them to both announce and unveil two highly anticipated new championships for each respective division.

Shane-O-Mac and Bryan declared that the SmackDown Women’s Champion would be decided via a Six-Pack Challenge at Backlash on Sept. 11. Team Blue’s new Tag Team Champions would also be decided at Backlash, however the two teams that would fend for the pay-per-view finals would be decided via a tournament that would kick off tonight!

It all seemed pretty straightforward … and then Heath Slater showed up, still yearning for both a SmackDown Live contract and, now, a title opportunity. Ultimately, he, Shane and Bryan reached a compromise — if Slater could find a partner, they would be entered in the tournament for the brand’s Tag Team Championships next week. The rub? Slater and his partner would have to win the entire tournament if he wanted to be signed to the blue brand.

AJ Styles then made his way to down ringside. Styles was disgruntled over a brawl he and Dolph Ziggler had backstage moments prior and wanted to air his grievances to the SmackDown Live Commissioner and General Manager. However, before he could even get the complaint out of his mouth, he was ambushed from behind by The Showoff. The two picked up right where they left off backstage, prompting Shane and Bryan to have the competitors in the ring separate the two.

With a championship to now fight for and redemption from her loss two weeks ago on her mind, there appeared to be no stopping the Irish Lass Kicker against the upstart Alexa Bliss this week on SmackDown Live.

With Natalya and Naomi doing commentary on ringside, both Bliss and Lynch, looked to impress and get the physical and mental edge en route to the Six-Pack Challenge at Backlash. However, in the end, Bliss ultimately had no answers for Lynch once she got some momentum behind her and Becky with the red hair scored the victory with the Dis-Arm-Her.

Jimmy and Jey Uso squared off against The Ascension in this first round matchup of the Tag Team Tournament for the new SmackDown Tag Team Championship. The back and forth contest was physical, however, over time, The Usos’ agility and athleticism won out over Konnor and Viktor’s size and power advantage, ultimately with Jimmy Uso hitting a huge splash onto Viktor.

In case you didn’t hear, “AJ Styles beat up John Cena.” More importantly, AJ Styles beat John Cena, clean as a whistle with no outside help at SummerSlam … and boy, could he not wait to tell literally everyone about it.

One person who didn’t want to hear it, however? Dolph Ziggler. After falling just short against Dean Ambrose for the WWE World Championship at SummerSlam, Ziggler was in no mood for Styles’ mouth. The two got into two brawls earlier in the night and The Showoff could not resist interrupting The Phenomenal One here as well, attempting to engage in round three as security surrounded him while charging out.

However, before matters could get too out of control between the stars of the New Era, Daniel Bryan came out in an attempt to cool down the situation — security by separating the two and the General Manager by trying to give both men what they wanted.

Bryan informed Styles that, due to his victory over Cena at SummerSlam, that he was now locked in as the No. 1 Contender for the WWE World Championship at Backlash. However, he would also square off with The Showoff tonight and if Dolph could defeated him, then Ziggler would be inserted into the championship match at Backlash, subsequently making it a Triple Threat Match with it all on the line.

The thunderous reaction Nikki Bella received during her return to WWE at SummerSlam only continued on SmackDown Live as she came out to a hero’s welcome from the Connecticut contingent of the WWE Universe as she prepared to take on Carmella.

The returning Nikki began to speak from the heart in front of the WWE faithful until she was viciously blindsided by Carmella, clearly still frustrated by being defeated by Nikki this past Sunday. As a result of the attack, the match would never happen. Adding insult to injury (that she caused), Carmella struck Nikki with the Bella Buster before trotting off incredibly proud of herself.

F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S? Nah, seems a little more like J-E-A-L-O-U-S-Y now for the Princess of Staten Island.

In the wake of his brutal encounter with Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, Randy Orton had time scheduled on SmackDown Live to speak on what is next for him … but then darkness came.

Suddenly, Bray Wyatt slowly crept to near the ring and sat ominously in his rocking chair. Wyatt would proceed to talk The Viper down, venting about the many frustrations and grievances he has with The Apex Predator.

Finally, Orton had enough with The New Face of Fear’s maniacal rant and challenged him to step into the ring and duke it out. However, before he could get his hands on The Eater or Worlds, the lights went out again and when they relit, Wyatt was gone and all that remained was an empty rocking chair.

Alpha is defined as being first in something. So, it seems almost fitting that as we now inch closer to the first SmackDown Tag Team Champions being crowned, American Alpha is on a hot streak unlike any other team in the division.

WWE World Champion Dean Ambrose sat in on commentary as The Showoff and The Phenomenal One dazzled the WWE Universe in the main event.

The study in contrast between the two was evident during the contest – Styles, coming off the biggest win of his career – was confident and loose. Meanwhile, Ziggler, reeling from quite possibly the most critical defeated of his WWE tenure, was aggressive and possibly pressing a bit too hard.

The end result was not kind for Ziggler, with Styles surging to victory by connecting with the Styles Clash after using the middle rope to assist him with a low-blow when the referee was not looking in the contest’s closing moments. Ziggler would once again show, yet not win, eliminating him from the WWE World Championship picture at Backlash.

SmackDown Live went off the air with Ambrose and Styles locked into one another, knowing the stakes that they were now presented with at Backlash.